As winter was coming to an end, and with spring right around the corner, Paris and Adam celebrated their marriage. With a whirlwind of whimsy, romance and intimate moments, they tied the knot at their micro wedding at The Homestead Berry. The fairy garden vibes of the day were enhanced with the sneaky additions of butterfly wings and statement sleeves.
With their photography and videography team from Charmore Creations, their perfect wedding is now forever immortalised.
When they first met at work, Paris mistook Adam’s shyness for rudeness – luckily, that didn’t last long! “We met at our old workplace. I was new and had transferred over from another location. I had worked the day shift, and Adam was rostered for the afternoon. He came on at shift change, and we immediately caught each other’s eye; however, Adam was super shy and ignored me, but I mistook this as thinking he was being rude. On the way home, I rang a work colleague to debrief my first few days and couldn’t help but want to talk about him and complain about him ignoring me.”
On a family camping trip to Wyangala Dam with Adam’s family, Adam had a surprise up his sleeve. “We had all packed onto his brother’s boat, and Adam was wearing his ugliest pair of Oakley sunglasses and had somehow gotten his hands on a bucket with Oakley written all over it that had been left on the boat. I had turned to him mid-boat ride and commented on how ridiculous he looked and said, ‘How the hell am I meant to marry you one day?’” Paris described. “Shortly after, we pulled up at a small beach, and I turned to see we had a beautiful scenic background of mountains and water behind us. I immediately threw my phone at Adam and asked him to take some photos of me, my sister-in-law and my niece. I noticed he had a cheeky grin on his face, but I told him to focus on taking a good photo! He subtly switched the phone to video mode, passed it to his brother and got down on one knee! I pulled off the worst ugly-cry face but was over the moon. I found out afterwards the plan was to take me for a walk on the beach to propose, but after I had commented on how beautiful the scenery was on the boat, he decided that was the perfect moment!”
Adam wore a simple, classic-style suit from MJ Bale, with RM Williams accessories and boots. He chose this beautiful sand-coloured jacket, indigo pants, vest, and silk spotted tie. “I wanted Adam to feel as special as I did in my attire; he deserved just as much fuss, so we went together to pick out his suit together.”
The most treasured items from the day for him were the cufflinks he’d gotten as a gift that morning. “They were Dusty’s paw print from Deja Marc. Adam works as a dog trainer, and Dusty is with him 24/7. They are inseparable and best mates. He loved receiving these as a gift, and they were worth the wrestle with the dog to get his paw prints!”
A tradition Paris and Adam wanted to put their own spin on was a gift exchange on the morning of their wedding. “We liked the idea of getting each other a gift on the morning of the wedding, nothing too fancy or expensive, but didn’t want it to be too traditional or generic either. Adam knows I was HUGE on the Matilda’s bandwagon during the 2023 FIFA Woman’s World Cup, and I suddenly decided I was a big football fan despite knowing very little about the sport. It didn’t matter to me; these women were making history, and I was going to ride or die for them till the end! Because of this, Adam had purchased a Swysh personalised message from Matilda’s goalkeeper, Mackenzie Arnold, which was shown to me while I was getting ready in the morning, thanking me for my support and congratulating me on our wedding.”
The most important piece of advice Paris wished she had before the big day wasn’t to do venues or decor – but about getting ready! “I didn’t hear this advice until afterwards, and I WISH I had heard it before! If you’re having hair and makeup, schedule yourself to be in the middle of the group, not last! I know you mentally want to be last, so your makeup is the freshest or most recent. A good makeup artist and hairdresser will make their work last all day, so where you are in the run sheet shouldn’t matter. I suggest this for these reasons:
1. You sit around all day watching everyone else start to get ready and look put together, and it can make you feel like you’re running late, flustered or unorganised.
2. It will help keep you busy during the waiting game – the rush will come, and it’s captured in point 3…
3. The time you’re probably scheduled for is going to be the time the photographers arrive, the florist arrives, the coordinator wants to ask you questions, or something has gone wrong. You’re going to be pulled left and right during this time, and the last thing you want is to be in and out of the chair because you need to look at things or make decisions.”
Paris wore this incredible Potion gown by Rachel Rose Bridal – with the sleeves stealing the show (exactly as she wanted!). “I didn’t want to feel like my sleeves were an afterthought or there to cover an insecurity. For the first few appointments I went to, I was constantly told, “Yeah, we can add sleeves to this; it will just be the same lace”, which didn’t feel like my vision. After going to 5 bridal shops, I was convinced that finding something I loved (or even liked) would be impossible, and I was ready to settle for a white formal/evening dress and give up on the bridal shops,” she explained. “At my final shop, I felt like the consultation understood the vision. I had said whimsical, romantic, soft and with sleeves. The first dress she put on me was Potion. I tried on a number of other absolutely stunning dresses; the world was truly my oyster at Penrith Bridal Centre, but I kept coming back to how beautiful Potion made me feel. At a final fitting, one of the consultants asked me if I had considered a veil. I had always thought it would take the attention away from the sleeves, but after trying on the veil, it perfectly completed the look and matched the soft tulle of my shoes and sleeves!”
Since it was such an intimate wedding, with all the focus on Paris and Adam, there was no formal wedding party. As Paris was walking herself down the aisle, she wanted to find another way to have a moment with her dad and two of her sisters-in-law. “Because my dad wasn’t walking me down the aisle, I wanted to give him the opportunity to still have a moment together before the ceremony. We had a very sweet first look that had us both in tears; I know we will both cherish those moments together.”
The Homestead Berry instantly captured Paris and Adam’s hearts; at least for Adam, it was a no-brainer. “I was drawn to the Homestead because of the beautiful gardens and how they would look in the winter. I also appreciated that the owners were willing to tailor a package for our mirco wedding. After a tour of the grounds, the accommodation and a quick chat with the owner, we fell in love with how beautiful it was. Back in the car, while I was getting into business mode and tracking our visit to the next venue, Adam was asking why we were leaving without putting a deposit down and was worried we were going to lose our date. In his mind, none of the other venues even compared. Eventually, the beauty of the venue and the way it had captured Adam’s heart made it a no-brainer; he had said to me, “I couldn’t imagine marrying you anywhere else”.”
For her entrance song, Paris chose You Are In Love” by Taylor Swift. Knowing Paris is a huge Swifty, Adam felt there was no artist that was more her. “I spent the entire ten months of wedding planning trying to find the “perfect” aisle song. I felt a weird pressure for it not to be “too” anything, too cheesy, too boring, too common or too mainstream; I felt like it needed to slot perfectly into the vision/vibe of the day I had created in my head. I hadn’t heard “You Are In Love” by Taylor Swift in a few years. It was on an older album and not on my high rotation, but there is a beautiful soft lull in the final pre-chorus that I instantly could see myself walking down to, and it was perfect,” she remembered. “I decided to walk myself down the aisle. I’m very lucky to have kind and supportive parents who I asked to walk down the aisle together before me, but walking down alone truly felt like the right decision for me. The moment was about Adam and I, and time literally stood still as I rounded the corner on my own, Taylor Swift softly playing in the background, and saw Adam waiting at the end for me.”
Three weeks before the wedding, Paris gave Rose Moon Flowers, her florist, the most chaotic document outlining her vision. Her florist came right back with the perfect soft pastel mood board, and Paris knew then that she had picked the right woman for the job. “I had a beautiful soft bouquet with soft pastel statement flowers. I really wanted it to feel like it was delicate and whimsical like it had been pulled together from a fairy garden. The soft blue orchid was my favourite.”
Micro weddings can create a romantic and intimate atmosphere for couples; this wedding was the perfect example. With only 15 guests and their celebrant Gemma, they wanted to share this special moment with the ones they loved the most. “The idea of walking down the aisle and saying my vows in front of hundreds of people made me feel really anxious and vulnerable. By stripping it back to the most important people in our lives, we felt really special, safe and comfortable. While we didn’t have a traditional wedding party, our three sisters-in-law (from both sides of the family) are some of the most amazing women and mothers,” they explained. “We had asked them if they would walk down the aisle with their children by their side in lieu of any flowers, as our nieces and nephews are the most important little humans in our lives. We also surprised our witnesses on the day, each of us asking a sibling (Adam’s only brother and Paris’s eldest brother, who had flown in from Tasmania for the week) to be our witness.”
After the ceremony had concluded, Paris and Adam joined their photography team, Cat and Crystal from Chamore Creations, to take some portraits. “I came across Chamore Creations on Instagram and immediately fell in love with their work, but they were located in Melbourne, so I thought it would be a little bit too extra of me to fly my photographer and videographers from Melbourne for my little south coast of NSW wedding,” Paris recalled. “After months of continued searching, I just didn’t find any photographers/videographers who were able to evoke the same emotional response from me that Chamore Creations did. Even after going through a short-list with Adam and looking at other business videos and galleries, he agreed that nothing had struck him the same. We reached out to the team, had an initial chat with Charlotte and booked it all in. We spoke with Morgan in the lead-up, and the entire team was fantastic. We had Cat and Crystal on the day; they were the PERFECT match for us; they felt like old-time friends of mine, and we clicked instantly and delivered the most stunning photos. We couldn’t have been happier.”
Planning a wedding is a monumental task, and it was especially daunting for Paris as she had never planned a party, let alone a wedding, before. I take my hat off to those planning a big wedding. I truly didn’t know what I was in for. Luckily for us, it was all about keeping it simple, and I really think this helped make it seamless for us. That and having vendors that made the process and day a dream.”
Their five favourite things about their intimate wedding include:
1. Having a micro wedding: having a small guest list of just our family was really important to us. We wanted it to feel intimate and special with just the people closest to us,
2. Walking myself down the aisle, the moment really became just about us,
3. Having our niece and nephew there, we TOTALLY got a child-free wedding and definitely had them put to bed with a babysitter at dinner time, but we also adore these little humans around. They caused absolute chaos during the ceremony, but we wouldn’t have it any other way,
4. Just being ourselves: whether it was running around with the kids or sneaking away to do our first dance privately, we did everything how we wanted to do it; we didn’t want the day to feel like a performance,
5. Waking up together the morning of.
Once they had returned from their photos, Paris found her nieces running around in their favourite butterfly wings – and instantly knew she had to join them! “In a mix of toys my mum had brought down to keep my nieces entertained, she had included 3-4 pairs of their FAVOURITE butterfly wings. On any other day, running around, dancing, wearing butterfly wings and squealing the roof off with excitement would have been first on my agenda, and my wedding day was no different.”
Their first dance was something they wanted to feel authentic and intimate, so it wasn’t scheduled for them to perform. “We didn’t want to schedule it into our day and be forced to do it if we weren’t feeling up to it, but we wanted it to be private if we did. Just as our guests were seated, we snuck away with a portable speaker, our photographer and videographer and did a classic little “we-can’t-dance-but-I-love-you” sway and final dip privately to “Pointless” by Lewis Capaldi.”
Thanks to Chamore Creations for capturing and submitting this intimate wedding! And a huge congratulations to Paris and Adam on your beautiful micro wedding – may you create many more whimsical memories together.
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